Highland County commissioners updated on Healthy Aging Grant

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton met with Highland County Community Action Executive Director Julia Wise and Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner for an update on the county’s Healthy Aging Grant during their Wednesday, Feb. 28 meeting.

As previously reported, Britton announced in March 2023 that the state had allocated $259,581.37 in Healthy Aging Grant funding for Highland County. In December, commissioners announced that the grant would be administered by Highland County Community Action Organization and voted 3-0 to enter a contract with HCCAO for that purpose.

Wise and Warner both provided handouts to commissioners with an overview of how the grant funding is being utilized for senior residents throughout the county.

“I do believe there are some counties in Ohio that haven't had the opportunity whatsoever, or chose not to go after the money,” Wise told commissioners. “Thank you very much for investing in our seniors.”

According to information provided by Wise, the bulk of the Healthy Aging Grant was dedicated toward housing assistance ($53,000) and nutrition assistance/home-delivered meals ($52,000). The third-largest area in the original budget was a senior programs coordinator ($41,329), but. Wise said that HCCAO is “internally” administering the grant and would rather “invest it” into one of the areas where the grant helps seniors.

“I will probably come back and ask you all to redirect some of this $41,000 in funds directly into some of these programs,” Wise said.

For the home-delivered meals program, Wise said that HCCAO provided a total of 40,822 meals for seniors in 2023, including 21,104 through their regular program, 19,570 through PASSPORT (a Medicaid program) and 148 other/prepaid meals. She said that due to the pandemic, HCCAO received additional funding for home-delivered meals and therefore was able to accommodate more seniors. 

“We are the only provider in the county that does meals countywide,” Wise said. “We deliver in Hillsboro, Leesburg, Lynchburg, all over the county. Our kitchen is obviously based in Greenfield.”

For 2024, HCCAO projected serving 30,350 meals, including 9,633 through their regular program, 16,000 through PASSPORT and 4,717 through the Healthy Aging program. Wise said that the amount budgeted through the Healthy Aging grant for meals will be expended by early May.

“What we did was took a lot of our seniors that were on the program, took everybody off our waiting list and moved a portion of them to Healthy Aging,” Wise said. “I want to assure everybody, we're not making any seniors go off to the program.

“However, we now have a waiting list in place, which means we cannot take new customers on unless they are PASSPORT-eligible.”

Wise explained that the Area Agency on Aging provided $153,362 in funding toward the meal program last year, and this year that total is only $96,532. Meanwhile, based on the number of seniors HCCAO has served already this year, they are expecting the number of meals served to be approximately 41,076.

“We have a lot more seniors on, so in reality, the number that we have to serve is going to be a whole lot more than what we had to put down on paper to serve them to show it to break even,” Wise said. 

In addition, Wise said HCCAO previously had a two-year $604,000 in Community Services Block Grant (increased during the pandemic), which is now $350,000 for the current two-year cycle. 

“Our ability to subsidize for 2024, I have a budget in for $225,000, which is not going to cover our loss,” Wise said. “That’s OK. We’re going to keep doing everything we can to make it work. 

“What you all did is really helped us be able to kind of keep the people on the program and take everybody else off the waiting list.”

In the $53,000 housing repairs category, Wise said that one project has been completed — installing a step-in shower — and two other projects are underway.

“We have so many people on the waiting list for home repairs,” Wise said. “We're hoping we can really hit a lot of things that there wasn't necessarily any way to help them before.”

For rent, mortgage and utility assistance, Wise said that $24,000 has been set aside, and they have spent $6,441 thus far “on items such as utilities and property taxes.” 

The other largest area budgeted is for adult care through Job & Family Services ($35,000).

“My goal is to try to get everything expended, out the door, by the end of June,” Wise said. “We truly appreciate this, on Community Action’s behalf. We plan again to reprogram [the remaining $41,000] into somebody else's pot of money, and I'll probably come to you and ask what your recommendations are for where you'd like to put it.” 

Wise concluded her report by informing commissioners that HCCAO served 1,138 unduplicated seniors in Highland County in 2023. 

Along with the aspects of the grant covered in Wise’s report, Warner spoke about the digital literacy portion of the grant, for which $25,959 has been budgeted. The Health Department is working in conjunction with HCCAO on the “digital literacy training program specially designed for seniors 65 and older who want to feel more comfortable using technology to connect with loved ones and access services and information that is available online,” according to a press release. “These free interactive sessions are designed to empower older adults with the skills and confidence to safely navigate smartphones, computers, social media and the internet.”

A free “introduction to technology for seniors” training program is scheduled in various locations throughout the county in the coming months. Those include: March 4 from 11 a.m.-noon at the Hillsboro Senior Center; March 7 from 5-6 p.m. at the Greenfield Library; March 18 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. at the Greenfield Senior Nutrition Center; March 30 from 1-2 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library; April 6 from 1-2 p.m. at the Leesburg Library; April 15 from 5-6 p.m. at the Lynchburg Library; and May 4 from 1-2 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own devices to these training sessions. No registration is needed, and all training events are free. 

“With this digital literacy piece, we want to encourage and increase seniors’ ability to use technology to access resources,” Warner said. “There’s a lot of things that seniors deal with on a day-to-day basis, where if they are able to engage in the online component that goes with it, they have better access to their health information. They can access online groceries. They can really have an improved quality of life if they have a comfort level in using some of the existing technology that's out there. 

“The other piece of this is really trying to increase their level of sense of connectedness with each other, with the community and with their families, so we're trying to provide some training on how to set up an email, how to use social media, how to do video calls, and provide some of that kind of baseline information on how to use technology.” 

Another program being offered is an online safety training/“tech support office hours” for seniors. With this program, seniors will be taught about online safety and privacy; how to identify and avoid online scams; how to create strong passwords and strengthen privacy settings; and other security basics. 

After the information session, seniors are invited to participate in “live tech support,” where Health Department representatives can assist seniors with “specific problems or questions” regarding their personal devices (computers, smartphones, etc.). Warner again encouraged attendees to bring their own devices for these sessions.

The safety training/tech support dates are scheduled for May 20 at 10:30 a.m. at the Greenfield Senior Nutrition Center; June 3 at 11 a.m. at the Highland County Senior Center and at 5 p.m. at the Greenfield Library; and June 17 at 5 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library. 

Warner said they are including handouts to seniors “who get home-delivered meals” and reaching out to “different agencies that work with seniors” to get the word out.

Commissioners thanked Wise and Warner for the update on how the grant is progressing.

“It’s up and running well,” Wise said.  

In other discussion:

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to authorize a settlement agreement, release and covenant not to sue between the American Electric Power Company and Highland County Engineer’s Office. According to Daniels, AEP has agreed to pay $684,478.58 for road repairs.

“American Electric Power was doing some work, and they did some damage to the roads,” Daniels said. “They have a RUMA, a Road Use Maintenance Agreement, with the county engineer. They have agreed on a settlement, and this is just a contract that we won't sue them and we accept the agreement. The engineer signed off on it and seemed happy with the amount.”

• Innergex community and government relations representative Janet Grothe attended the meeting to introduce commissioners to Matthias Weigel, who serves as Innergex Senior Director of Development. Innergex is the developer for both the Hillcrest Solar farm in Brown County as well as the Palomino Solar project in Highland County.

“I've been with Innergex since October now,” Weigel told commissioners. “I’ve been working in the renewable space for about 17 years, starting with wind projects up in my home state of Minnesota. Lots of experience here in the Midwest, especially in Ohio. I've done a couple of wind projects in northwestern Ohio, and working on our Palomino project down here now in the county.”

According to a newsletter mailed to commissioners recently (listed under correspondence on the Feb. 28 agenda), the Palomino project — which will be located in Dodson and Union Townships — “has officially been transitioned into the fast-track process by PJM, meaning absent any surprises, [Innergex] will be able to sign the Larger Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA) soon. Once the LGIA is executed, [Innergex] will be able to provide firmer dates, contingent on weather and American Electric Power’s timeline, for constructing the interconnection facilities.”
 
Weigel told commissioners that “from a project perspective, we're pretty much on schedule, so it's really just PGM timing at this point.

“As far as our side is concerned, we're working on engineering still,” he said. “We'll loop back with Ohio Power Siting Board for their technical review as well. We’ve got panels rolling in late this year, early next year; main power transformers ordered; high-voltage breakers are ordered.”

• Commissioners held an alley viewing in Danville at 10 a.m., after receiving a petition filed by Hamer Township Trustees to vacate the alley, located east of Danville Road and north of state Route 138 in Hamer Township. With no opposition, commissioners voted during an 11 a.m. hearing to approve the alley vacation. 

• Commissioners held a work session with Cierra Moore to discuss maintenance of county properties.

Commissioners also made the following other approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• A resolution to authorize a transfer from Transfers Out to 4220 Airport Capital Improvement in the amount of $2,494. Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to Other Expense (4220) in the amount of $2,494.

• A resolution to create a line item within Rolling Acres Sewer Fund, Advances Out (5000-72420-59085). Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Rolling Acres Sewer (5000) fund in the amount of $11,000. Also requested is a request to repay an earlier advance from 5000 Rolling Acres Fund to 1000 General Fund in the amount of $11,000 (Res. No. 23-28 & 23-69).

• A resolution to approve the reappointment of Scott Miller as the Highland County 911 Coordinator, effective immediately.

• The execution of a change order from Weller’s Plumbing & Heating for work on the new OSU Extension Building at the fairgrounds, to reflect a $386.09 change to their total contract price. 

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